Flashback
by Jack Lecter
Summary: CHAPTER THREE FINALLY UP THANKS TO KYRE FOR THE REVEIW! Logan draws away from Max without knowing why.ML!
1. Default Chapter

Flashback  
By The Shadower  
  
Prologue  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Max, Logan, or D.A. I don't own any of these characters.  
  
Archiving: Still not sure what it is but I probably won't mind.  
  
Feedback: Please, it would be appreciated.  
  
Rating: PG-13 for later chapters. (Violence, profanity), but this prologue only G.  
  
Summary: A Manticore assassination ties in to the present forcing Max to face her Manticore past once more and Logan to come to terms with the death of his family. Set in and around Pollo Loco.  
  
Spoilers: Pollo Loco. Maybe a little AU, certainly departs from cannon after Pollo Loco, also maybe speculative about Logan's father.  
  
Dedication: To F. Paul Wilson's character Repairman Jack, for an inspiration that will last a lifetime. And to Orson Scott card, who gave me the Idea for the pure dialog parts.  
  
A/N: No tie to my earlier story, but maybe good too. Don't worry, I'm not forgetting about Trouble In My Mind, I just wanted to try this idea. Also, the prologue to this story is rated G. The PG-13 is for later chapters.  
  
2008  
  
"I thought you should know. There's a problem."  
  
"That's obvious. I wouldn't be here if there wasn't."  
  
"Don't be petulant Deck, it doesn't become you. Did you see the news last night?"  
  
"No, I was working. What about it?"  
  
"Take a look at it now."  
  
"What the hell-"  
  
"It's this reporter, Deck. Somehow he found out about the Iraqi massacres and he's broadcasting it."  
  
"He found out about that?"  
  
"Yes, he did, and now the world knows about it."  
  
"But if he was able to find out the truth about Iraq-"  
  
"Who knows what other dangerous information he might have stumble onto in the course of his investigation? He needs to be neutralized. Immediately."  
  
"I'm beginning to see why you asked me here. But the X-4's are currently undergoing correctional reprogramming due to some technical difficulties."  
  
"And you don't have another assassin? We've been paying for Manticore for decades now and you have nothing to show for it?"  
  
"Not nothing. We have a great deal of research and discovery and there's every reason to believe the X-5's will prove useful when operational."  
  
"We don't have time to wait on this, Deck. If you have one of your kids you think could do the job, put it on this immediately."  
  
"I might have one. Very smart, scores better than the others on intelligence tests, amazing agility, speed, strength..."  
  
"Very good. What's the catch?"  
  
"It's an X-5."  
  
"I thought you said they weren't operational."  
  
"They're eight now. Just kids, and untrained, at least for the kind of work we're looking at. I wouldn't put most of them on this, but the one I'm thinking of is exceptional. Tests show-"  
  
"I don't care about what tests show, Deck. Do you believe this X-5 is ready to take on a mission?"  
  
"Ideally we would wait another four years or so, but it should be workable now."  
  
"Very good. Start training your charge for the field."  
  
2019  
Logan Cale bolted upright in his bed, screaming. It had been The Dream again. As before, he remembered only a few fragments from it. Rain pouring down. A car thrown into harsh relief by lightening. His fathers voice, saying "Hurry up Log, or we'll be late!" Shadowed figures getting into the car. A flash of light. His chest and lungs and everything around him vibrating. A noise so loud he'd thought his eardrums would burst.  
  
He knew what the dream was. The psychologists had told him he was repressing the memory of his family's death. He had been there, standing about ten yards from the car they had died in, and he had seen all of it. The trauma had been too great for him and he had forced it back in his mind, making himself forget. Now, eleven years later, he still had no memory of that fateful night aside from the dreams still plaguing him.  
  
He took a framed photograph from his bedside table. His father was there, smiling, with the rest of them. It had been taken weeks before their death. Logan felt the beginning of tears coming to his eyes and brushed them away angrily. He would not cry again. He had cried enough eleven years ago.  
  
His family had been blown up with a car bomb, almost certainly because of his father's exposé articles on the government. There were no leads, the case was a dead end, and quickly marked cold by Seattle's finest. Eyes Only had found nothing on it, and he had long since given up trying to force his memory. The case would never be solved. He was reminded of the words of a famous kidnapper just before execution. He whispered them to himself in the darkness of his apartment. "They say when I die, the case will die. They say it will be like a book I close. But the book... ...it will never close." Logan got out of bed and started to dress, resigned that there would be no more sleep that night.  
  
A/N: This is the prologue to a story idea I had. Chapter One should be up soon, how soon depending on if I get involved with another writing project. Feedback is appreciated. 


	2. Chapter Two

Flashback  
  
By The Shadower  
  
Rating: PG-13 for later chapters, this chapter only PG.  
  
Archiving: Would someone please tell me what that is?  
Odds are I won't mind.  
  
Feedback: Please. I'm finally understanding why everyone is  
addicted to it.  
  
Spoilers: None in this chapter, but eventually Pollo Loco  
A/N: ML later, just be patient. I'm having trouble writing it without making it into the plot. I have plans to put it in later though. This whole story is kind of AU and speculative, and it'll depart from cannon after Pollo Loco.  
  
Chapter One  
  
Max strode into Logan's apartment, looking slightly annoyed. He hunched over his computer, not looking at her.  
  
"You paged me."  
  
He snapped up, startled. He hadn't realized she had been there.  
  
"Yeah, I need another favor."  
  
"What's up?"  
  
"I'm looking into the murder of a reporter. I need you to break into the file room in the Seattle government building, see if they have an assassination order on record."  
  
"They actually file assassinations?"  
  
"In our government they do."  
  
"Isn't this more of a hacking job? Find a file on some computer somewhere?"  
  
"This particular murder happened eleven years ago. If there is a file, it's in hardcopy."  
  
"So why are you looking into this now if it happened eleven years ago?"  
  
"This journalist was trying to expose police corruption on a major level. He may even have been trying to expose Manticore. Maybe if we find his killer, we can use it to get to Manticore."  
  
Max studied him. He looked strained, tense. She didn't know if she'd ever seen him this focused before, except, of course, when he had been trying to stay on his feet. She felt a pang of sadness at the memory of his despair.  
  
"You okay?"  
  
He looked up.  
  
"Yeah. Why shouldn't I be okay?"  
  
"You just seemed a little out of it. Is it this case? It is, isn't it? What's different about this murder?"  
  
He sighed. He knew he would have to tell her eventually. He maximized the newspaper clipping displayed on his screen. The headline read CALE FAMILY KILLED IN BOMBING! Max took it in. She read aloud  
  
"The Cale family is survived by their youngest son, Logan, a child of eight. Logan refused to comment."  
  
She stared at Logan.  
  
"Oh my god! This is your family! They got blown up when you were just eight?"  
  
He nodded wordlessly. She turned back to the newspaper clipping, staring at the photograph. Something was familiar here, something she didn't want to think about. She shook it off. Logan was too absorbed in his own little world to notice anything was wrong. Damn. She hated when he got like this, and she hated that he had been hurt. She ran a hand affectionately through his hair. He looked up at her. A tear was running down one of his cheeks.  
  
"It's okay," she whispered.  
  
"It's all gonna be okay."  
  
She sank down to her knees and looked at him. When Logan saw the warmth and reassurance in her chocolate-brown eyes, he almost believed her. Almost.  
  
2008  
  
Lydecker stood in the X-5 barracks, briefing the X-5 who was to assassinate Thomas Cale.  
  
"You understand you are to kill Thomas Cale"  
  
"Yes sir!"  
  
"You are to assassinate his entire family as well. You will detonate a bomb planted by you under his car."  
  
"Yes sir!"  
  
"No witnesses, no evidence, no survivors."  
  
"Yes sir!"  
  
"Minimal human contact outside. You have all the necessary training to move about in the world, but you haven't taken Common Verbal Usage or any of the more advanced classes, so it's best to be safe."  
  
"Yes sir!"  
  
Lydecker allowed a small smile to curve over his lips.  
  
"Very good," he said.  
  
"Congratulations on your first mission, 452."  
  
A/N: If you review, I am much more likely to write more. I'm almost certain I'm writing the sequel to Trouble In My Mind next so don't worry. If anyone has any tips on how to write ML without it taking over every thing, please let me know, I would really appreciate it. 


	3. Chapter Three

Flashback  
  
Chapter Three  
  
By The Shadower  
  
Feedback: It was a come-in-late feedback that pushed me into getting back to this story, so I think more would be a good idea.  
  
Rating: PG-13 (language, maybe violence, possibly some other stuff way down the line but not now.)  
  
AN: Getting back to my usual angst-ridden ML. If it wasn't for Kyre's review I might never have gotten back to this, so thanks. Also, I'm putting Max and Logan as the same age, because I prefer it that way and because the only concrete information I got says Logan is fifteen years older than may, which is too great an age difference for my taste.  
  
"I...  
Can't remember...  
The last time you cared about anything,  
The last time you allowed yourself to receive"  
  
-The Trapt  
  
2019  
  
(Burning blood his mother sobbing screaming NONONO and fading and blood coming out of the car and so alone so alone)  
  
"Stay and you can whip up one of your culinary miracles?"  
  
He turned to look at her.  
  
"What's that?"  
  
Max looked at him strangely, like he was a little off, and he supposed he was. Investigating his father's murder was putting him on an emotional roller coaster and he wasn't handling it well.  
  
"I asked if I could stay for dinner, OC's at crash and I really don't feel like socializing."  
  
He looked at her. God, she was beautiful. But he couldn't think about that. She wanted to stay for dinner. He should say yes. It was the good thing to do, the polite thing to do, and he wanted to do it anyway. And yet... something held him back.  
  
She looked... familiar, somehow, in a way she hadn't before, like he'd seen her a long time ago and forgotten.  
  
He wanted to have dinner with her, he wanted to very much, but somehow...  
  
Somehow he couldn't.  
  
"Um, actually I'm going to have to take a rain check on that I kind of tired. Long day."  
  
It sounded lame and pathetic even to his own ears. He saw the pain in his eyes reflected in her own as she walked out.  
  
(screaming explosions a little boy crying and crying something in his eyes accusing her and it hurt somehow god it hurt)  
  
Max was confused. Why had Logan brushed her off like that? And why was she suddenly remembering things that made no sense?  
  
She had never been on a mission. She'd certainly never been sent to assassinate a family like Logan's. And anyway, even if it was a Manticore assassin that got to him, it would be an X4 wouldn't it? The X5's had been too young then. She banished the images of the car, the explosion, from her mind easily enough.  
  
It was the ones of Logan's face and his voice when he'd pushed her away, along with those of that kiss in the car... those were the ones that wouldn't leave.  
  
AN: Kind of short I know but I hope for a longer chapter soon. 


End file.
